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A thought occurred to me whilst I was going through "Top Rated" on iTunes, does anyone else give preference to longer (6-min plus) songs, when it comes to favourites? To me, when done well, the development over a song over a sustained period offers more than a burst of shorter perfection can. Or do people prefer short and sweet (or have no prefernece of course).

And also, can we just list great longer songs (perhaps avoiding genres where it is more commonplace; post rock, ambient etc)?

ESSENTIALLY it is an album full of long dense prog suites. sometimes it works + sometimes it doesn't but you just have to trust that he knows what he's doing really. the best one on it is probably the last single or Geilid Ascent

False Priest was good though. it was kinda the opposite of PS as it's his attempt at making the perfect pop record + obviously I like that kind of thing, especially when his idea of perfect pop is weird sci-fi philosophical art funk.

... Always guaranteed to get your money's worth on any pub jukebox.
Also worth checking out:
Orbital - Out There Somewhere
Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
The O'Jays - For the Love of Money
And have a listen to Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Live at the Fillmore East 1970. There's a version of 'Down by the River' that rocks in at over 12 minutes, and a version of 'Cowgirl in the Sand' that rounds of the 6 song set at just over 16 minutes. Lovely stuff...

or California One by Decemberists cos they're more like songs within songs, a kinda of medley if you like. They could just operate as entirely separate songs.

But I really like long songs which develop gradually, and contain a lot of repetition, for example All Delighted People by Sufjan Stevens and This is Just a Modern Rock Song by B&S. Also loads of Felt tracks, especially Riding on the Equator: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q66mrCKV6k

The middle bit drags for me, and the rest is a bit uninspired melodically. There are two absolutely amazing bits - the first 3 minutes and the careening post-middle-bit freakout. Both are almost entirely the work of Chris Squire. Yes weren't really up to writing long, long songs at that point - And You And I is a MUCH more successful composition IMO (as is everything on The Yes Album) - it took them a whole album of practising to get the gist of an epic and even then it wasn't until the next record that they nailed it

I listened to it SO MUCH in my teenhood that I'm probably just burnt out on it. I would say it's probably their 3rd-best 15+ epic, regardless, even if it could never quite give me the adrenaline seizure of Starship Trooper or Perpetual Change

I really think the melodies are better and more interesting on the later epics - which tilts it for me, even if sepulchral harmonies abound within CTTE's cavernous bridge

I think Jon Anderson is a really good poet/(lyric)writer who always needed an editor, never had one, but plunged heroically on regardless

ISAGP is awesome as well, yes - the descending organ outro is fucking amazing, full of the most gorgeous melodic change-ups this side of Tim Smith's work. Perpetual Change has that bit in the middle that sounds about 40 years ahead of its time - like, actual computer music. I think they invented Autechre in that moment. Plus, every time the verse kicks in again I am irretrievably compelled to grin

Another word for And You And I, whose 2nd movement is one of the most beautiful passages of music I think I will ever hear. Should have chosen it for the end credits of Avatar, or my wedding, or something

Another one for the 15+ range: Devin Townsend - The Mighty Masturbator (17) which is pretty much the End Of Days set to cheerful meta-metal-electro-waltz existentialism (i.e. the single song most liable to make a Maroon 5 fan weep) and which rules so, so, so, so fucking hard

Awesome. Perfectly encapsulates the 'hip-hop as dead language' allegory of the album. Like a lot of the long songs here, it has sections: it moves from subdued start to chorus, verses, discordant noise then blissful coda.

I had a bit of an 'oh yeah' with this tune a little while ago. For the last part of the final verse, the MC's voice is mixed and distorted lower and lower in the mix until you can barely hear what he's trying to say. But the words that are double-tracked for emphasis are still clear - the overdubbed voice isn't distorted. So the lines are like:

but seems as this is the amazing sufjan stevens were talking about with all the great tracks from seven swans, michigan and illinoise,not too mention tracks like too much and get real get right from AOA - i think the song is fairly overated